Meeting Minutes 20141112

Meeting Minutes 20141112

Town of Underhill
Energy Committee
12 November 2014


DRAFT MINUTES


CALL TO ORDER
Jerry Adams, Pete Bennett, Peter Duval, Steve Webster, and Chris Miller in attendance, the regular meeting was called to order at 6:34pm in the Town Hall Kitchen, with Chris in the chair and Peter D. recording minutes as secretary.


Agenda
******
Steve W. asked to add Solar Community to the agenda.


6:40


Town Plan Draft Energy Chapter
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Chris reviewed recent activity on the Energy Chapter. Melanie Needles explained the anomaly in the efficiency graph as the accounting of a light bulb incentive campaign. The CCRPC additions will be deleted.



6:45

Solar Communities
*****************
Three approaches to accelerating solar installations were discussed.

Steve described a Thetford organization that creates buying groups by issuing requests for proposals for bulk solar installations. They have been able to negotiate PV installations down to less than $3/W. Jerry noted that his system was $4.50/W.

Peter D. described the SunCommon community solar project at Evergreen Erb’s as a condominium.

Steve also described his 120kW hosting of a group net metering project, which is sized to meet the limit of 150kW per single-phase line. Jerry is also considering hosting a similar system.

Peter D. mentioned two considerations for these systems: land impact, and narrowing the specifications to minimize risk and control costs. Discussion ensued about different applications and configurations, including landfill, rooftop, ground-mount and parking cover.

Steve will investigate and develop this idea further.


7:02


Member Recruiting
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Chris reviewed the membership history of the committee. Originally, the committee had 7 members. When Pete B. joined the membership increased to 8. The resignation of Chuck returns the membership count to 7.

Pete B. mentioned Brian Hurley as a potential member. Jerry mentioned Steve H.

After some discussion of the optimal size of the committee, Steve offered that 37 members would be too many.

7:07

Town Infrastructure
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Pete B. related a conversation with town staff about the operation of the heat pump, which will take some tweaking to work effectively with the boiler. The installation under the eave without cover was a poor decision. The post office heat pump should also be protected.

Chris described the selectboard meeting with Bob. Pete B. volunteered to go again with Bob to discuss the advantages of consultation with the committee.

Peter D. asked if we should build a doghouse for the town hall front yard heat pump.

Discussion turned to heat pumps, generally. Steve asked if anyone had installed a residential unit. Pete B. said that Efficiency Vermont’s delays in announcing heat pump incentives had slowed the market.

7:20

Energy Options for Today
************************
Steve said that has saw mostly new faces at the event. Publicity had gone to all neighboring Front Porch Forums. Chris suggested that next time we should have a signup sheet. Jerry handed out a cost comparison table, updated with recent prices. Chris identified coefficient of performance as an issue that received a lot of questions from the audience. Pete B. said that Efficiency Maine’s website has very good information about heat pumps, also Vermont Fuel Price Report.

Peter D. said that he would like have hourly climate data for Underhill’s microclimates. Chris said that he has a weather station but does not log data.

7:38

Other Items
***********

Jerry would like to do some more home audits and asked if others would like to help, with a positive response from several members.

7:44


Minutes
*******
MOTION
Steve moved, and Pete B. seconded, to accept the minutes of 08 October 2014 as submitted. Passed Unanimously.


ADJOURNMENT
***********
On a MOTION by Pete B., seconded by Steve, the meeting was unanimously adjourned at 7:46.


Respectfully Submitted,

Peter Duval, Secretary



Approved ______________________________________ date:__________________


_______________________
Chris Miller, Chair




Fwd: they're getting tough

From: Peter Bennett <ptbennett@alum.mit.edu>
Subject: they're getting tough
Date: November 13, 2014 at 8:58:09 AM GMT-5
To: Steve Webster <swebster@sbschools.net>, Jerry Adams <adamseng3@comcast.net>, "'Chris Miller'" <cpmiller_m@yahoo.com>, Tom Moore <router123@aol.com>, "'Peter Duval'" <pkduval@gmail.com>, "'Bob Murphy'" <bmurphy@veic.org>
Cc: bbigelow@underhillvt.gov

I guess we need to keep an eye on all this.

http://digital.vpr.net/post/braintree-considers-disconnecting-its-town-website


Peter